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Lieberman Dodges Bullet

TUESDAY NOVEMBER 18 2008 1:00 PM

Submitted by Stiles. Edited By crispy.

TAGS: Lieberman, Senate, douchebag

Turncoat Senator Joe Lieberman walked from a Senate hearing today with his most prized committee chairmanships intact, dodging punishment for campaigning for John McCain and publicly criticizing eventual winner Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential race.

Senate Democrats backed away from a major rebuke of Sen. Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.) on Tuesday morning, keeping their colleague as the chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in the next Congress and stripping him only of the gavel on a lesser subcommittee.

With punishment like that, he'll be sure to reform his wayward ways...

One wonders if the Democratic leadership thinks they will win enough contested seats to have a filibuster proof 60 vote majority, and if Lieberman would be the 60th vote. We will see how Joe returns the favor.

25 Comments

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FreakPirate

Calgary, AB

November 2002

NOV 18, 2008 01:07 PM

Wow. That's extremely disappointing. Are the Dems just hedging their bets? If they don't pick up all the seats they're hoping for will they need Lieberman to play along? Maybe they're trying to avoid having him jump sides.

Still... really sad.

X_Racer_X

Philadelphia, PA

July 2008

NOV 18, 2008 01:19 PM

Maybe,maybe and maybe.

I would have liked to see him do the honorable thing and fall on his sword,but no he survives another day to remain the treacherous little rat that he is.

FreakPirate

Calgary, AB

November 2002

NOV 18, 2008 01:26 PM

X_Racer_X said:
Maybe,maybe and maybe.

I would have liked to see him do the honorable thing and fall on his sword,but no he survives another day to remain the treacherous little rat that he is.

He really doesn't seem like the "do the honorable thing" type. In fact, he seems like the exact opposite.

Was he just re-elected? Or is he up in the next set of elections? Does he stand a chance any more?

phrogg

Greenville, SC

August 2005

NOV 18, 2008 01:55 PM

FreakPirate said:

X_Racer_X said:
Maybe,maybe and maybe.

I would have liked to see him do the honorable thing and fall on his sword,but no he survives another day to remain the treacherous little rat that he is.

He doesn't run again until 2012.

Toku666

Columbus, OH

May 2004

NOV 18, 2008 02:03 PM

He won't get above senator (if he even stays at that level) for the rest of his career. He made the decisions that made sure of that.

Arguably, there is an Obama decision on this matter that I would qualify as leveraged mercy, and it doesn't surprise me at all that Reid didn't have the stomach to actually punish the guy.

FellOnEarth

Temecula, CA

April 2006

NOV 18, 2008 02:57 PM

Lieberman has been there along time, hell he's practically an institution unto himself. I just don't think the senior senators wanted to snub the guy after working with him for so long. I guess they just figured it's better to forgive (spineless twats) then to punish the man for being such a shit. Unfortunately, this gives Lieberman a hell of a lot of power then he is due.

Maybe he'll come around, but if he hasn't in the next two years, there's a good chance he could lose all of his chairmanships (and there will be another opportunity for the Dems to reach a solid, filibuster-proof majority).

In other news, it looks as if Stevens won't be ejected from the Senate after all. Alaska's absentee votes are almost all counted and he's virtually guaranteed a win over the mandatory .05% recount margin.

Come on Franken!

lil_tuffy

MODERATOR

San Francisco, CA

NOV 18, 2008 03:04 PM

So much for "Change!"

FellOnEarth

Temecula, CA

April 2006

NOV 18, 2008 03:10 PM

lil_tuffy said:
So much for "Change!"

bean

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

NOV 18, 2008 03:16 PM

lil_tuffy said:
So much for "Change!"

Right, because it's 2010 and in the last two years of a three-wing Democratic government, none of the things the Democratic Party ran on have been enacted, and, in fact, they've done exactly the same as Bush.

Please. Give me a break. Yes it's shittty. Yes I'm pissed off. But removing Joe Lieberman from his Homeland Security and Government Affairs committee chairmanship was not part of the Democratic platform, nor was it a campaign promise in any race in the nation.

Is it a bad sign? Does it worry me? Am I concerned that the progressive agenda Obama ran on and which voters approved overwhelmingly won't be enacted by this Congress? Yes. But it hasn't happened yet, and we're stuck with this group of clowns until 2010, so suggesting that this is somehow an across-the-board repudiation of that agenda, or throwing your hands up and suggesting that this Congress has failed in their mission of change is absurd.

Toku666

Columbus, OH

May 2004

NOV 18, 2008 03:21 PM

FellOnEarth said:
In other news, it looks as if Stevens won't be ejected from the Senate after all. Alaska's absentee votes are almost all counted and he's virtually guaranteed a win over the mandatory .05% recount margin.

Come on Franken!

I had to read and re-read the above and the linked story. Your post makes it sound like Stevens won the election. I about gagged.

MisterEnrolled

Birmingham, AL

October 2005

NOV 18, 2008 03:21 PM

Harry Reid really was born without a spine when it comes to these matters, no?

lil_tuffy

MODERATOR

San Francisco, CA

NOV 18, 2008 03:22 PM

I guess I should have saved that comment for when he appoints Hillary.

FellOnEarth

Temecula, CA

April 2006

NOV 18, 2008 03:23 PM

Toku666 said:

I had to read and re-read the above and the linked story. Your post makes it sound like Stevens won the election. I about gagged.

BAH! I screwed the pooch on that post, I meant to say the following:

Alaska's absentee votes are almost all counted and Begich is virtually guaranteed a win over the mandatory .05% recount margin.

Doh!

MisterEnrolled

Birmingham, AL

October 2005

NOV 18, 2008 03:24 PM

lil_tuffy said:
I guess I should have saved that comment for when he appoints Hillary.

Why not for when she does something contrary to the goals set forth by the Obama Administration, post-January 20th?

bean

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

NOV 18, 2008 03:25 PM

MisterEnrolled said:
Harry Reid really was born without a spine when it comes to these matters, no?

Dude's a Pro-Life Mormon from Nevada, I think it's less that he's spineless than that he honestly doesn't support a progressive agenda. He'd be spineless if he failed to stand up for what he believed in. I don't think this was that.

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